Posted By GreenChef Staff Monkies On February 23, 2007 @ 4:55 am In G Living | No Comments

Madonna’s label, Warner Music Group, is leading the industry in going green and cleaning up their act. They partnered with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and announced on February 9th they are starting by switching to ecologically-enhanced paper packaging for all their CD and DVD products in the U.S. That change will happem by March 2007.

WMG also is developng a program to offset their greenhouse gas emissions and are starting with a “carbon-neutral” Grammy party.

â€œEnvironmentally responsible behavior is good for corporate America: it’s smart ecology and smart economics, said John Esposito, President and CEO of WEA. It lowers the costs of paper procurement and waste. And it strengthens employee morale. Thank you to our partners at the NRDC, as well as Ivy Hill/Cinram, and Stora Enso and to every one of our employees, for their excellence in making business-friendly environmentalism a reality. There is no downside to being friendly to the planet.

According to NRDC Senior Scientist Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, â€œBy committing to protect the southeastern forests that comprise the Cumberland Plateau BioGem from being cut down to make disposable paper products, and by committing to use post-consumer recycled paper instead, Warner Music and WEA are leading the charge to stop global warming and to preserve the cultural and ecological home of country music, the region that literally gave birth to rock and roll. WEA, in partnership with its printer Ivy Hill, have developed what is arguably the most progressive set of procurement standards of any music company on Earth. We applaud them for doing this and we are proud to be collaborating with them on this important work.

“Ivy Hill is proud to be a partner in this milestone initiative. We commend Warner Music Group as the industry leader in the use of sustainable packaging materials, said Arthur Kern, President of Ivy Hill Corp. â€œWe offer special thanks to the NRDC. Their guidance has brought us closer to our goal of providing the entertainment industry with the most environmentally responsible printing and packaging materials available.”